Keynote: Chris O'Neal
chris.wikispaces.com

Leading Digital Learners
"Every student is achieving at his or her mazimum potential within an engaging, inspiring, and challenging environment."
Our Supt's new vision statement
(Although Chris gave us an outline, I found it hard to takes notes within it.)
My Space - virtual recess with nobody on duty, hang out online, some kids very productive
  • Research & Data
    • Higher Level Converstations don't end abruptly. (UVA Facebook pages mostly arguing about politics, not porn)
    • John Seely Brown - employee interaction (Productivity) success depends on social abillity
      • Most productive people socialize alot
      • Blogs, wikis, etc.
    • Most successful college students are those who learn to socialiaze well in study groups
    • Wikipedia is now the top free online educational reference site. (Hitwise, March 2007)
    • 76% of teachers found that students tended to be more engages and on task whenthey used collaborative technology web 2.0 tools (wikis, blogs, podcasts). (Web 2.0 in Education - ABEL Program, York University)
    • 76% of teachers recognized that they engaged studetns in a wider range of learning. (Web 2.0 in Education - ABEL Program, York University)
    • Also parents more involved... even if to complain that THEIR kid's podcast isn't up yet.
    • 55% of teacher agreed thatstudent took more initiative and demonstrated better self-management during collaborative, technology-rich projects.(Web 2.0 in Education - ABEL Program, York University
    • 40% of teachers indicated that less time had to be devoted to classroom management. (Web 2.0 in Education - ABEL Program, York University)
    • www.profilerpro.com Profile the Staff (FREE, Built for Education) - How comfortable are you with these things? Build in links to help folks who grade themselves low on particular issues.
  • Higher Level Conversations
    • Stop repairing things and teach the kids to do it.
    • ISTE Educational Technology Standards for Teachers updated - Leading a Digital Citizenship Classroom iste.org
    • Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge, Techological Knowledge overlap Middle is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (focus - deal with all of it) Plan with teachers on their issues and incorporate Web 2.0 tools, instead of teaching the 2.0 skills cold - too scary for them
  • Time Management
    • Questions for us
      • Do you have your own time in order?
      • rrrrrrrrrrrr missed it
      • Schedule stuff we need into our calendar (wiki updates, blogging, staff meetings, tech PD, Sharepoint catch-up?, tech help) STICK to it!
      • Survey the staff
        • team time
        • interruptions
        • time-saving software used effectively
        • what are the time wasting issues we can fix this year (involve principals in discussion)
  • Alignment
    • Are you a core of the instructaoinal team
    • Do you read/keep up with non-technology issues?
    • Do you assess you own "alignment" with the rest of the school?
    • Edutopia - look for cross curricular technology activities, a place to dialog with others about the content and ideas
    • Pew / Internet - Tools, Recent research, great for grant writing or data to support your tech project with kids, short studies
    • Life hacker blog - blog for busy people who use technology a lot, fun, geeky
    • Jott - addicting, call yourself (email) a reminder - personal assistant (advanced Jott)
  • Challenge
    • Don't spend all your time fixing things
    • Handle lower levels issues some other way
    • Schedule time for myself to catch up on blogs, etc. my own personal learning network
    • Be the cheerleader on the side